I have been researching the Canadian Horological Institute (CHI) since 1999. This was a school for watchmakers that operated in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from 1890 to 1913. I am writing a book on the school, its director (Henry Playtner) and some of its notable students.

To graduate from the school, the student had to make a watch either from the raw metal or from an ebauche movement. Although over 500 students attended the school, only 48 watches were known to have been made. While timing the watch, the students would make specialized tools and or an escapement model.

I have documented some of my research on my website www.cdnwatchmaker.com.

I would appreciate your help if you have in your collection a student's watch from the school, an escapement model,or other memorabilia such as a school circular or a class photo. I would gladly pay for clear sharp digital pictures of watches and escapement modela and scans of paper items.

I do not offer to buy these items as I know most collectors prefer not to be bothered by treasure hunters. All I need are the pictures, your permnission to publish them and a note as to whether you wish to receive credit for the photos.

Thanks for your interest and support.

Gary

Gary,
Just read through your web site and although I cannot help you with your research and have nothing to offer you but "thanks" for an outstanding job on the preservation of that part of history. Cannot wait to read the book when you have it completed. Please let us know here when it's finished.

Regards and good luck in your continuing research,

Ray

Gary -
Here's a link concerning an attendee.
https://ihc185.infopop.cc/eve/f...56047761/m/796107581

Good luck in your endeavor.
Bob

Gary is the gentleman that volunteered information to me on the Nettleton family of Ontario.

I am asking IHC 185 members to dig through your Canadian watches, movements, dials and any documentation to help with his worthy project.
Gary's web site has a list of student names for your comparison.

Ed Kitner

Thanks for your words of encouragement!

This is a Black and White shot of a watch in a collection in Texas which the collector kindly allowed me to have and publish. (I will be printing the photos in colour in the book.)

This watch was shown in the June '87 issue of the NAWCC Bulletin.

Gary,
If you resize the photo's to 640 x 480 the site can handle them better.
Thanks for the photo.

Gary

If there are any names I can research for you please let me know, I checked out your list of students but couldn't' tell who you might need information on.

Tom

Gary,
In the watch photo above is that a date of 1984 under W.Smiths name?..If so, do you know what the date may correspond to.

Ray

Hi Ray.

No, it is 1904, wich was the year that Smith graduated.

Gary

Hi Tom

Thanks for you offer to help.

I will check my list to pull out the students on whom I have little information, but who may have made a watch. As I want to write a small section on each graduate, they are the most interesting to me. Some seem to have disappeared off the face of the earth. A friend has spent literally months on Ancestry and other sources trying to trace the students, but many are very elusive - a testament to the quality of the early records!

Gary

Facinating! Can't wait to read the whole book.

I see from the class pictures, that there is at least one woman in the group. Do you know how many woman went through the program?

I know my name is misleading, lots of folks on this forum probably think I'm a guy too, but I'm not, and have an interest in knowing how many watchmakers were women.

Hi Dale

Yes, Eleanor Taylor was the first female student of the school. She joined in 1909 and graduated after making a watch in 1911. I spoke with the son of one of the male students in her class and he said his father kept commenting on this remarkable lady throughout his life. I have met her family and hope to have a good story for the book. She was pretty amazing.

I have 7 chapters of the book complete and they are being edited now. There are at least five to go. I wish I was retired so that I could do this faster!

Gary

Hello Gary:

I have private label pocket watches from the following members of the Canadian Horological Institute;

George G. Nettleton - Ottawa, Ontario
Joseph Onla Patenaude - Nelson, British Columbia.
Albert C. Skinner - Sherbrooke, Québec.
William Frederick Tate - Cranbrook, British Columbia.
Wesley Baynon Webb - Allandale, Ontario


They are an Omega, Elgin, Waltham, and two other Elgin's. If you're interested in any of these photos for your publication, please let me know.

Larry Buchan

Hi Larry

I would appreciate copies of those photos,and your permission to use them. May I credit you?

I don't know if I will ultimately have a place for them in the book, but it would be interesting to show that some of the students did carry on in the industry and open their own businesses. Surprisingly, many did not. Many went into totally unrelated industries such as farming, railroading, medecine, insurance, drugs (the licit kind ) etc.

My e-mail is chi_information@yahoo.ca

Thanks for your help

Gary

Tom

Thanks again for your offer to research some of my students. I have a researcher helping me who has found out a lot, but we are stumped on a couple:

Edward Teffein - This gentleman made an escapement model which was advertised in Trade Journals and had the school name engraved on a plate along with his own name. Escapement models were generally built by students while their watches were timed and adjusted. I have found no information whatsoever on Teffein - when he attended; whether he was a graduate; or where he went after his schooling. He is a complete mystery

J T Whelan was in the 1892 class at the school. He made watch number 4 which was dated 1894. He has however, been elusive. Ottawa City Directories show a J T Whelan who worked for C Addison in 1891 and J E Tremblay in 1893. There was a jeweller and watchmaker in Ottawa whose name was M Whelan and he had a son J Whelan. I might assume that my J T Whelan is M Whelan's son, but I have no proof. J moved to Sault Ste Marie and married in 1911. He was listed as a brakeman in the last available census. I have no idea if the CHI J T Whelan was the Ottawa and / or Sault J Whelan

The thing that I need most are descendants of the students, so I can try to find out more about them:

Robert Agnew

Joseph Schuster

E S Walker

There are more, but you can see my issue. I get a paper story, but as the census data that has been made available is very old, I lose many of the students in the pre and post WW 1 years

Gary